Our Chinese chestnut trees have aroused such interest that we are sure
the readers of the Proceedings will wish to hear of the large crop
harvested in 1946. A year ago an unseasonal spring brought a frost that
killed back the six inches of soft new growth. As a result, the 1945
crop amounted to less than 250 pounds. This year the 18 trees produced
1138 pounds, 938 by actual weighing and 200 estimated. This is an
average of 63 pounds per tree, with the largest crop of 124 pounds on
No. 19, and the smallest on No. 14 of 22 pounds.
These trees are now 18 years old and were unfortunately planted too
close. But using a spacing of 30 feet x 30 feet, they would have borne
3000 pounds per acre and if planted 40 feet x 40 feet would have borne
1600 pounds per acre. Figure this crop at 25c a pound and you would get
a really high return. This year the price was much better than that, but
we planted the crop.
The tree record was as follows: Number 1--38; Number 2--25; Number
3--30; Number 4--52; Number 5--44; Number 6--30; Number 7--42; Number
8--40; Number 9--45; Number 10--58; Number 11--56; Number 12--48; Number
13--58; Number 14--22; Number 15--50; Number 16--80; Number 18--86;
Number 19--124; Total of 938 + 200 (estimated) = 1138.
It is also worthy of note, that No. 19 is spaced 30 feet from No. 18 and
No. 16 is the same distance from No. 18, while all the other trees are
spaced 16 feet apart. An acre of trees like No's. 16, 18 and 19, spaced
30 feet apart, would average 96 pounds per tree or 4200 pounds per acre,
a really tremendous crop.
We had one disappointment this year, in that our method of controlling
the weevil was not completely effective. To our chagrin we found that,
while we were diligently picking the nuts up each day, some of the
larvae were escaping through the cotton bags to reinfest the ground.
Next year, we will use metal containers and we are sure that will stop
them. We will fumigate if necessary. We do not particularly fear the
weevil as we are sure that spraying, and fumigation will clean them up;
after that proper harvesting should control them. We have heard that the
U. S. D. A. has found the use of DDT to be effective. In another county
a raiser of hybrid corn seed dusted his corn with DDT by plane, to kill
the Japanese beetle, for $3.00 per acre. Surely that method would be
adaptable to chestnut orchards to control the weevil.
At the present time we are using our entire crop for seed purposes and
this year we sowed 40 to 50 thousand nuts. We carefully grade the seed,
not only discarding any infested nuts, but all moldy, split or
undersized nuts, so that we get trees grown only from the choicest. By
doing this we feel that although the trees are seedling raised, they
come from parent trees that are bearing well, and from which all
extraneous pollen is excluded so that the customer has a good chance of
getting a tree that will bear well.
The seed is sown in the fall, because it keeps better that way and
germinates better too, although we have some trouble from a mole-mice
combination. The seeds are sown in shallow trenches 6 inches apart and 2
inches deep and back--filled either with sawdust or light soil. On top
is mounded a further 4 to 6 inches of soil which is removed in the
spring. This reduces damage from freezing and thawing.
We do not doubt for a moment that the Chinese chestnut is here to stay
as an important food crop for the United States.